Well, another decade has passed and still Christ has not returned for His Church. But I am even more convinced that His coming cannot be long. We have witnessed a great moral decay in the fabric of our nation, and in the world as a whole, and why He has not called a halt to all of this misery, war, and famine in this world is beyond my comprehension. But, I assure you, He has a plan.
This year has been a tough year for Southern Sound Quartet as we have gone through a baritone change with Trevor Haley’s departure, and we have had some very unsuspected costs that hit us several times this year, mostly concerning our old bus. In early 2009 we faced a huge expense of having our bus engine rebuilt due to coolant leaking back into the crankcase. And just recently we learned that the exact same thing has happened again, and now we are facing a $15,000.00 bill to replace the engine. Sometimes it just never ends. But I refuse to allow the devil to defeat me, and we will continue on, with His help. Although not sure where the money will come from, I am convinced that God knows all. I am looking forward to this new year. Tony Peace is our new baritone, and we could not be more pleased. We have a new booking agent in The Dominion Agency, (Triumphant Quartet, Collingsworth Family) and are signed to a new label, Homeland Entertainment (Three Bridges). So much is going for us, and we are excited about the future, at least once we get over this bump in the road. Now, back to the purpose of my article this month.
I don’t want you folks to think that Nick and I are ganging up on you, but some of us older folks are concerned about the direction we as a genre are headed. When I listen to Southern Gospel radio, I quickly become disenchanted with the talent level and presentation of today. Sure there are some bright spots out there, but there are many soloist and groups being presented to the world as the best we have to offer, that are musically quite poor. I spent many years recording, producing, and engineering secular music in Nashville, and I can promise you if we had produced and released to the public, music with similar quality as what is heard on a regular basis on Southern Gospel radio today, we would have been out of business, and would have been out of a job, in very short order. Now, I gave up that career to do what God had impressed upon my life to do, and that is sing Gospel Music. Notice, I did not say Southern Gospel, I said simply, Gospel. I will leave that thought for a future installment.
I am dismayed that people would go forth into the world, not knowing beans about the craft they purport to love, and spend countless dollars promoting a product that is so sub par musically, it is embarrassing. If you feel compelled and called of God to sing Gospel Music, then by all means, do the prudent thing and learn the craft. It is one thing to be called of God, and fortunate enough to, on occasions, be filled with His spirit. It is quite another to expect recognition on a national level simply because you feel called and blessed of God. Many country preachers are forevermore called of the Almighty, but far from prepared to be the next Billy Sunday. For example, I know the rudiments of professional football fairly well, but I am far cry from a professional football player and would be totally unprepared for such a demanding task. I do not possess the talent level, nor the professional training required for the job. I think in Southern Gospel there should also be some basic requirements that need to be made before any artist can be called professional, or be promoted by record labels, promoters, agents, etc, to the world at large as such.
And, not to just lay the blame on the artists, there are many Southern Gospel labels, producers and engineers who are just as guilty as the artists. In many cases they are even more at fault then the artists. The artists come to them a bit naïve with big dreams, and the industry feeds into those dreams many times in a way that I feel borders on criminal. For example, lets take a look at the engineers. Any major label secular project will take 2-3 weeks to mix, but we as Southern Gospel Artists expect our projects to be mixed and mastered in a day’s time. In reality, much of what we hear on a finished CD in our genre might be considered just a good rough mix in the secular world. Now, much of this has more to do with budget constraints than the engineer trying to cut corners. I mix several projects per year, and each one of those I end up giving several weeks of my time away, for two very simple reasons. First off, the group, or label cannot afford my time to mix the project as professionally as the music requires, and secondly, I simply cannot allow my name to go on a project that I have not given everything I can to it’s quality. If that means giving of my time to insure the project is mixed as well as any professional secular project, than that is what I must do. It is my way of giving something back to the industry that I love dearly. But it does limit me as to how many projects I can do per year.
Our labels are so starving for work that they will take any group or artist as long as they have the money to pay for the services. And those services have been so streamlined to match very limited budgets, that many such custom labels now freely advertise a price for the recording, product and, get this, radio promotion, long before the label even knows who the artist is, let alone if the artist is radio capable. This is my number one complaint with how Southern Gospel business is conducted this day and time.
Just imagine a label like RCA advertising something like this:
• Six hours of recording with 5 Nashville Musicians
• Six hours of re-mix and mastering time
• 1000 Professionally produced CD’s
• 3 Singles sent to radio
• All for the low price of $11,495.00
• Call us today!
Can you see the problem with this situation? It is a guarantee, based on dollars spent, that RCA would send this music, regardless of talent level, to professional radio. But this is exactly how the recording process in our genre is being marketed to countless Southern Gospel groups across the country. And what is even more mind-boggling is, the labels actually follow through and send those questionable single comps to radio. The effect becomes, every Southern Gospel DJ in the nation gets a comp with some good music and far too much bad. Sadly many of the radio people are as limited musically as the artists and they can’t tell the difference, so they pick music to play that probably should have been passed over. In fact, music that should have never made it to a comp in the first place is being played on a regular basis on our genre’s radio outlets.
We hear so much talk about poor audience attendance and we wonder why. Labels, radio and artists clamor for a more progressive approach thinking incorrectly that is what is required to get the seats full. Let us be totally honest with each other. Our poorly attended concerts are not due to lack of progressive fare, it is a lack of professionalism. The audience has become more and more savvy as the years have gone by, and they demand better. We have movies, professional sports, boating, golf and a myriad of other things that compete with us. Plus, I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have had ministers of music tell me, “We don’t book Southern Gospel groups for they are too twangy, too country, or not musically proficient.” This is a misconception that many contemporary churches now have toward our genre. But it is based on a grain of truth. Let one musically unprepared Southern Gospel ensemble into such a venue and it may very well destroy the possibility of any other Southern Gospel group ever being invited into the same facility, even though many of the members of these churches are starving for good Southern Gospel music.
We must begin the process of raising the bar high, both from a musical stand point and a spiritual one as well. If we do not change our industry’s overly tolerant embrace of the ill-prepared, we will continue to decline. If your dreams are to be considered professional within these ranks then by all means, prepare. All other professional careers in the world require training and endless hours of practice. You should take voice lessons, learn to read music, learn to count meter, learn good stage presentation, and most of all be totally devoted spiritually and to a continual learning process. The devotion it takes to be a professional is far more than most on our genre are willing, at least thus far, to give. This must change. And since it is not likely the dreams of artists will make them devote the time it takes to learn their craft better, then the lion’s share of the burden must fall on the leaders of our genre to raise the mantle high. Our Lord gave His all for us, do we not owe Him at least the same?
Ben Harris
http://www.southernsoundquartet.com
Author: Ben Harris
| Author's Website: www.southernsoundquartet.com
Written: 01/06/2010
| 
Category: Sound Advice
Comments: 5
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Wonderful article and absolutely correct in every way. It is amazing the poor quality we hear on the radio and they have the gall to call it the best.
Unfortunately I know of groups that are threatend by people with musical training. These are likely the groups that you are talking about that should not be recording.
Another correct, to the point article, Ben.
Ben, I Agree with the article in whole. However, I don't agree with the concept that you can't sing good and correctly without having a music degree as one poster insinuated. I'd like to know (honestly, because I have no idea), just how much music training some of the founding fathers of our genre, as well as some of those in its "hay day" of yesteryear, possessed. I'd stop short of saying someone shouldn't be on the radio until I heard them sing, regardless of their degree of music training, if any, and regardless of whether or not they were threatened by people who were trained. That forces the assumption that you should be allowed on radio if you have the proper music training. Having a music degree makes you no more of a singer than knowing the Bible makes you a Christian. When the water is boiled out of the pot, can you sing? We've all run across people who have the training, degrees in voice, music theory, etc. yet don't have the God-given ability to sing well. Whether it's pitch, ear for the parts, etc., I've certainly known and attempted to work with people who were musically trained but simply could not sing well. I don't know if "threatened" is the right word, but I've certainly worked with some people who couldn't be told anything, simply because they knew that their knowlege of music exceeded my own. You can't sing baritone in a quartet, just because you can read the way a song is written in the hymn book.
Don't get me wrong - I wish I had more music training, but don't assume that someone can sing on pitch and sing well, mix, arrange, produce, etc. just because he doesn't have a music degree. 
As far as your other points mainly pertaining to the "record labels" (and I used the term loosely) that are signing up singers and groups left and right who never need to be recorded and convincing them they need to keep a song on the charts and anything else that will keep dollars flowing in the company's direction - what can be done about it as long as people are willing to waste their money? In all fairness to the labels, you can tell many of them the truth yet they're still willing to spend their money, so I can somewhat understand someone taking the approach that "they can waste their money here as well as anywhere else". Still, it looks like more pride would be taken in the product that comes out with your name printed on the disc.
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. - Proverbs 3:5-6
I agree that musical training does not equate to a great singer. However great talent without some ability to know chord structures is a good singer not living up to his potential.
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